By Ben Griffith
The most difficult concept to explain is one that has never been experienced. As a young, unmarried man, there are certain parts of the married life that would be impossible for me to understand. There are, however, certain things that I can understand by taking God at His word. The essentials of the marriage process, the individual duties of each member, the desirable attitudes, and other aspects of the marriage relationship can be gleaned from God’s word, but you are not going to find an unmarried, 17 year-old holding a marriage seminar. Why? Because no matter how much someone reads about the subject, he will never fully understand unless he experiences it. This adequately explains the way we deal with the concept of eternity. Eternal, without beginning or end, is an idea that we are told of, but we do not completely understand. Our experience has been limited to things that have a beginning; we have never empirically seen an object that never began. Through the antiquities of time, humans have pondered on a few basic inquiries. One of these questions is, “Where did I come from?” which springs from the basic idea that every physical component must have a beginning. This day began at 12 A.M., the news started at 7 A.M., the United States began in 1776, this article began at the top of page 1, everything we see had a definite time and place of origin. However, it is understood that for us to exist now, there must be something that is eternal since something cannot originate from nothing. By faith, we understand that it is God that has always existed (Ps. 90:2), and He is the originator of the world in which we exist (Heb. 11:3).
Eternity, the property of having no beginning or end, is only ascribed to three persons. God the Father (Js. 1:17), Jesus Christ (Mic. 5:2; Heb. 13:8), and the Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14) are all divinely asserted to have never begun, but to have always existed. Hugo McCord once commented on the exclusive nature of the eternality of God. He said that when one thinks of God, His eternity is one of the first things that come to mind. It is the basis of every other attribute of His divinity, and since it is exclusive to God, it is a way by which we identify Him. It is the basis by which we can have faith in Him; He has always existed, and will exist forever just as He has always been. We can put our faith in the firm, solid, unalterable Rock.
Most everyone agrees that God has always existed and is the first cause and the prime mover; however, some controversy surrounds the eternality of Christ. According to the Jehovah’s Witness book, Let God Be True, Jesus was nothing more than a “perfect man.” It is argued that Jesus was created and thus is not eternal. Despite the sincere defense of this ideal, the Bible does not support it. Both the New Testament (by describing Jesus as “God” with the imperfect tense verb “en” which denotes “timeless existence” in John 1) and the Old Testament (by describing the “Prince of Peace” as “eternal” in Isaiah 9:6) claim that Jesus was not a created being. Also, Christ, who is described as “the truth” (Jn. 14:6), in God’s word, which is described as “truth” (Jn. 17:17) claimed His eternality by saying that “Before Abraham was born, I AM” (Jn. 8:58), and also claimed that He is “the first and the last, and the Living One” (Rev. 1:17-18). The Bible is not uncertain on the matter, Christ is deity that has always existed, exists now, and will exist forever.
Every object that is in existence fits one of three categories: (1) eternal—without beginning or end (God), (2) immortal—with a beginning but without end (the human spirit), or (3) mortal—with beginning and end (physical creations like plants and animals). The members of the latter two categories inhabit a realm where time exists (Gen. 1:1, 26), but God, the Eternal One, “inhabits eternity” (Is. 57:15). We exist in a physical realm where everything is referenced in time (succession of events), so the way we understand eternity is by thinking of time extending forever in both directions from the present moment; however, time is a limited duration and thus our understanding is not strictly correct. God’s eternality implies His infinity in various other aspects omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, etc., and evidences that He has an altogether different nature than us. This is the means by which we understand God’s claim, “I AM” (Ex. 3:14). God dwells in a place where tense is non-existent. When a new language is learned, one of the more difficult concepts to memorize and put to practical use is conjugation. Languages have different words and spellings that convey whether something happened in the past, present, or future, definitely or indefinitely. The language of God contains no tense, for time is non-existent in a place that has no beginning or end. So, when God says, “I AM,” “it includes all time, past, present, and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what I am” (Gill).
A proper understanding of the differences between each class of existence helps us have the right perspective when it comes to dealing with life’s situations. All three categories are seen in 2 Peter 3:9-14. First, by understanding the mortality of the things of earth, we can perceive their futility, worthlessness, and vanity. The book of Ecclesiastes, a book of wisdom literature, has a lot to say about this topic. Solomon says that he has seen a great deal of things in his life and his conclusion is that they are vain (Ecc. 1:14). In chapter two, the concept of belongings and our relationship to them is under discussion. Labor to attain physical belongings is vain because the belongings will inevitably end up with someone who may or may not deserve them (vs. 18), and the hard work will cause physical and emotional displeasure (vs. 23). Everything here is meaningless because one day it will all be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10).
Next, by understanding the immortality of the human spirit, we are motivated to holiness. It has been asked before, “how long are you planning on living?” Most people would answer by saying 50, 60, 70, possibly 80 years, but in actuality the human spirit will live for an eternity. Understanding that we will all die, but continue to live (Heb. 9:27), and that we will find ourselves in one of two places (Matt. 25:46), we are motivated to be a holy people. Since we understand the mortality of earth’s physical components and we understand the immortality of the human spirit, “what sort of people ought [we] to be in lives of holiness and godliness” (2 Pet. 3:11)?
Finally, the eternality of God (which has already been discussed) is the means by which we know that what He has said is true, that His promises are not in vain. It is understood that God resides outside of time (2 Pet. 3:8), which is the source of His omniscience (Is. 44:6-8). God has, as it were, every event both past and present laid out before Him and by this He understands what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Therefore, when God says that the day of the Lord is approaching, it most definitely is. His eternal understanding of events and His divinity warrant the assertion that one day we will be judged (2 Pet. 3:13).
God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are the unique, one of a kind, beings possessing this characteristic of deity and power. Though we are told of the concept, we will never understand the essence of eternality and abiding in a realm where time is nonexistent until we die and then experience this spiritual place. God, I AM, through His eternal nature and omniscience imparts to us the truth of what will occur. Keeping it pithy, we have a choice to live for things of mortality or eternality. We are immortal; we began, but will never cease to exist, so the most important concept of understanding when dealing with God’s attribute of being eternal is that our faith, energy, zeal, and actions will always be geared towards either the fleeting or the firm. Let us deal with the temporary things as we should, and always put our faith in the Rock—the firm, dependable God—rather than the vain gods of this world. “For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves” (Deut. 32:31).
Sources: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible. E-Sword. Electronic Database. 2005.